TORONTO--Canada’s women’s captain, Hayley Wickenheiser, opened the final day of the Molson Canadian World
Hockey Summit with a keynote speech which accentuated the gap between North America and the rest of the world
in women’s hockey. And then she offered solutions to ensure her career continues with greater purpose after
Sochi.

She began at the obvious starting point, referencing IOC president Jacques Rogge’s comments from Vancouver
in which he demanded a closing of the gap in quality of play. “I look at his comments as a positive,” she
began. “It might be why we’re here today.”

Wickenheiser showed a video clip of women’s hockey over the last 20 years, from the inaugural World
Women’s Championship in 1990 through to the 2010 Olympics. As she pointed out, the increase in quality of
play and skill was staggering.

But it’s only a general overview. Specifics offered both optimism and pessimism. Finland, she noted, has
tripled participation in the last three years, thanks in large part to the efforts of Arto Seppi, a full-time
director of women’s hockey with the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation.

But Wickenheiser pointed to the incredible discrepancy in domestic league play among the top teams in the
women’s world. Some leagues play only ten games per team; others 66. All players outside the top four hockey
nations also say that their domestic leagues play a game of far inferior quality to the international game,
making development even more difficult.

She shared a brief conversation she had with Uwe Krupp, coach of Germany’s men’s team. She asked why
funding for the German women’s team has virtually dried up. He said the team hasn’t been winning. Get a
winning team and the funding will come. That is what’s called Catch-22. The less the funding, the lesser the
chance of success.

Russia, she noted, also spends no money on women’s player development, and Switzerland is right there near
the bottom. Only seven of the top 14 women’s nations have an executive on the national and federation level
dedicated to women’s hockey.

“It’s just not good enough,” Wickenheiser concluded.

“We need more exhibition games for the national teams. The U18 championship is only three years old, but
the level of competition at that level is closer than at any other level of women’s hockey, so the future
looks bright,” she offered by contrast.

Wickenheiser proposed specific solutions to the various and many problems. “It’s clear Canada and the U.S.
and the IIHF should lead the way, but it’s up to federations to help,” she began. “We need leadership. We
need to change societal values. We need to grow the game at both the grass roots level and improve the
quality of play at the elite level as well. We have to keep players in the game. So many women, after they
graduate and have nowhere to play, simply leave the game. We need more money and more exposure. I think we
can use the World Juniors as a model. Look at the U20. When it first started, it was small, but in Canada it
has become one of the biggest hockey events every year.”

Detailed solutions? Wickenheiser was intelligent in her observations. “We need to increase the
opportunities in North America. By that I mean, we need a professional league in North America that stands as
the best in the world where players from all over North America and Europe can play.”

“We need to have women play more games against boys’ teams. This will improve the skill level immensely,
as we found out prior to Vancouver. We also have to have all top nations planning for Sochi, so that the
tournament is as good as it can be.”

More important, Wickenheiser repeated a theme consistent all week in the men’s discussions—coaches. “We
need more quality coaches in the game all over the world. Coaching is the key to development.”

Challenging the IIHF, she continued: “We need the IIHF to hire someone dedicated to women’s hockey whose
only job is to provide a voice for the women’s game. We need to take action now. The game has come a long
way, but we have a lot more to do still.”

During the follow-up question and answer period, Murray Costello, an IIHF Council member, revealed details
of a Council meeting held the day before the Summit began. “I’m here to tell you that our president, Rene
Fasel, is here, as is the general secretary, Horst Lichtner, and Sport Director Dave Fitzpatrick, and we are
listening. We have committed $2 million to women’s hockey. It still has to be passed through Congress, but we
are listening. However, we can’t do this alone. The work has to start at home. We need the national
federations to come to us and tell us they are ready to move forward. But we have listened to you today. We
have heard, and we are impressed. And we are here to give our support.”